Medical Education and Sociology of Medical Habitus: "It's Not about the Stethoscope!"

Medical Education and Sociology of Medical Habitus: "It's not about the Stethoscope!" is a new and outstanding contribution to understanding the working life of junior doctors. Here Dr Haida Luke uses a medical sociological framework to help us understand how young doctors fresh out of medical school enter the medical culture as junior doctors and begin the rapid professional education and intense enculturation processes. What sets Medical Education and Sociology of Medical Habitus: "It's not about the Stethoscope!" apart from other works in this area is that it opens out the field of research in sociology and inserts junior medical doctor culture right into medical sociology and professional medical education. Central to this analysis are Dr Haida Luke's innovative use of Pierre Bourdieu's sociological framework and the concept of habitus. This volume challenges many of the myths of the medical cultural experiences and socialising forces that are an integral part of early medical training. Researchers in medical and educational social sciences whose research and teaching relate to issues of professional education, management, or research in health and medical sociology will find this work useful. Clinicians involved in medical education will also relate to the junior doctors' voices and will find the application of sociology to a medical clinical environment constructive. TABLE OF CONTENTS......Page 8 PREFACE......Page 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 12 INTRODUCTION......Page 14 CHAPTER 1 Examining Medicine with New Lenses......Page 16 Postgraduate medicine: Junior doctors......Page 18 Production and construction: The culture of medicine......Page 31 Why use the concept of habitus in medicine?......Page 36 Entering medical culture: Qualitative inquiry in the medical field......Page 37 CHAPTER 2 Theoretical Dissection of Medicine: Practice......Page 58 Socialising medical sociology......Page 59 Bourdieu's theory of practice: Capital, field and habitus......Page 68 What you are worth: Capital......Page 71 Struggle for power: Field......Page 74 Habitus......Page 76 CHAPTER 3 Putting It All Together: The Culture of Junior Doctors......Page 86 How to play the game: The postgraduate training programs......Page 87 Catering to the senior doctors......Page 94 Ultimate responsibility: Medical hierarchy......Page 106 Ward rounds: Performing medical practice......Page 118 Reflections on the first two years as a doctor......Page 124 Ward Round Video Scenes......Page 126 CHAPTER 4 Medical Habitus......Page 140 Becoming somebody: Growing up a junior doctor......Page 153 Capital(s) and field in postgraduate medicine......Page 155 Integrating dispositions: Habitus......Page 158 Cultural knowledge and the direction of habitus......Page 162 CHAPTER 5 Future of Medical Habitus: Medical Identity......Page 164 Concluding remarks......Page 170 APPENDICES......Page 174 REFERENCES......Page 180 R......Page 192 W......Page 193

Via a novel medical sociological framework based on Bourdieu's concept of habitus, i.e., specific ways of being, Luke (education, U. of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia) examines new physicians' professional development and experience. Several themes emerge from interviews and videotapes taken at two levels of training as central to junior doctor identity. In his theoretical treatment of the unofficial medical curriculum, the author overviews traditional views on such socialization prior to treating its cultural aspects. The interview schedules are appended. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This is a new and outstanding contribution to understanding the working life of junior doctors. It opens out the field of research in sociology and inserts junior medical doctor culture right into medical sociology and professional medical education by its innovative use of Pierre Bourdieu's sociological framework and the concept of habitus. This volume challenges many of the myths of the medical cultural experiences and socializing forces that are an integral part of early medical training. This chapter introduces the volume through a discussion of the significance of this study in relation to existing research in medical sociology.